Isn’t Israel just defending itself from Palestinian terrorism?

4. Isn’t Israel just defending itself from Palestinian terrorism?

This question denies both the historical violence Israel has inflicted on Palestine and Palestinians, and the daily oppression that it uses to maintain its control over Palestinian lands, homes, and resources. The simple fact that Palestinians have been driven out of their homes and forced to remain in exile over almost eighty years, and have faced nothing but ongoing displacement and genocide since the creation of the State of Israel, easily illuminates the reality that their resistance to Israeli violence is self-defense.

States such as Israel, which exist only as a result of such violence, cannot be characterized as “defending” themselves when they respond to Palestinian resistance.¹ Palestinian resistance, likewise, cannot be understood outside of the context of zionist settler-colonialism, which has been materially disrupting life in Palestine for more than one hundred years.

This reality is brought into even sharper relief when one understands the very physical violence Israel imposes on Palestinian communities, such as those in Gaza. The majority of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees from the rest of Palestine who have been forcibly displaced.² They are largely trapped in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has made into a concentration camp through its construction of walls and fences to entrap the Palestinian population, the constant use of surveillance and regular bombing campaigns, Israel’s restriction of food, water, and medicine into Gaza even before the renewed aggression beginning in October 2023³, and the systematic denial of access to medical care through Israel’s refusal to grant entry permits.^{4 5}

Israel creates the conditions that subject Palestinians to choose between lives constrained by inhuman policies that create death, or resistance. No, Israel is not defending itself from those resisting their elimination.

When working through the trilateral relationship between violence, the oppressed and the oppressor, It’s critical to remember the words of Paulo Freire, “With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violence has already begun. Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed. How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence? … There would be no oppressed had there been no prior situation of violence to establish their subjugation. Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as persons—not by those who are oppressed, exploited, and unrecognized.”⁶

Notes